Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-02-04

Lord God, hell itself is a refugeif it hide
me from Thy frown." Voltaire, the
most talented infidel the world ever saw
writing $50 publications, and the most OF
them spiteful against Christianity, him,
self the most notorious Hbert:ne of the
century-one would have thought he
could have been depended upon for stead,
fastness in the advocacy Of inadelity aud
in the war against this terrible chimera,
this delusion of the Gosp !. But no; in
mis- last hour he asks for Christian burial,
and asks that they give him the sacra-
ment of the Lord Jesus Christ Why,
you cannot depend upon these tirstrate
infidels-you cannot d pend upon their
power to resist this great deiu6On OF
Christianity. Thomas Pa ne, the gid
of modern skeDtiCs, his irth1EY Cee-
brated in New York an B p>tpn with
great enthusiasm-Thnmas sine, TIL par
agon of Bible-ha ters-T- mas Paine,
about whom his brother iatdel, William
Carver, wrote in letter which | have al
nv house, saying that he drank quart ui
rum day and was too mean and too dis
honest to pay for it-Tnomss Paine. the
adOred Of modern nfielitr-Thomas
Paine, who stole another mans vile in
England and brought her TO This land
TQOmss Paine, who TGs 30 squalid and
so lOathsome and so drunken and 50
prOfigate and so be6s'ly in his habits,
sometimes picked out OF the ditch, some
times too filthy to be picked ou'-Fhomas
Paine, one would have thought that he
could hsve been depended ~ for stead
fastness against this great delu>iGn. But
no In his DYING hour, he begs the Lord
Jesus Christ for mercy.
Powerful delusinu. all-CoDquering de-
lusIon, earthquakiDg delusiOu OF the
Christian religion. Yea, L goes on, it is
so IMPERTINENT,
and it is so overbearirg, this chimera of
the spell, that having conquered the
great picture galleries Of the world, the
old masters and the young masters, as I
showed in a former sermon, it is not sat
listed until it has conquered the music Of
the world. Look over the programme of
that magnificent musical festival few
years ago in New York and see what were
the great performances, and learn that the
greatest of all the subjects were religious
subjects. What was it one night when
5000 voices were accompanied with vast
number of instruments? Israel in
Egypt" Yes. Beethoven deluded until
he wrote the High Mass in d Major
Haydn deluded with this religion until he
wrote the Creation" Handel deluded
until he wrote the oratorios of "Jeohthan"
and esther" ard "Saul'' and Israel in
Egypt" and the "Messish" On the
closing night 5000 deluded people singing
of a delusiOn to 5000 deluded hearers
Yes, this chimera of the gospel is not
until it goes on and builds itself
into the most permanent architecture, so
it seems as if the world is never to get
rid OF it. What are some of the finest
in the world? St. Paul., st
Peters, the churches and csthedrals Of all
Yes, this impertin' nee Of
The gospel, this vast deluston is not satls-
led until it projects itself, and in one
year gives, contributes, 5000 600 to
oreign missions, the work of which is to
make
OUNCES AND FOOLS
IN the other side of the world-paople
We have never seen. Delud2d DOCTORS
20 physicians meeting week by week in
london. in the Union NJ deal Prayer
Circle, to worship God. deluded lawyers
the late Lord Cairns, the highest legal
authority in England, the eX-adviser of
he throne, spending his vacation in
preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ to
he Door people of Scotland. Frederick
I. Frelinghuysen, once the Secretary of
State of the United States, an old
ashirned evangelical Christian, an elder
n The Reformed church. John Bright,
ieluded Quaker. Henry Wilson, the
Vice President of the United States, dying
deluded Methodist or Congregationalist.
Carl of Klntore dying deluded Presby-
erian. The cannibals in South SEES, the
Sushmen of Terra del Fuego, the wild
nen of Australia, putting down the knives
# their cruelty, and clothing themselves
n decent apparel-all under the power of
his delusion. Judson and DOty and |
heel and Campbell and Williams and the
900 missionaries of the cross turning |
heir backs on home and civilization ana |
omfort, and going out amid the squalor |
f heathenism to relieve it, to save it, to |
clip it, toiling until they dropped into |
heir graves, dying with no earthly COM
Ort about them, and going into graves |
nth no appropriate epltaph, when they
hight have lived in this country, and |
we'd for themselves, and lived luxurious
7. snd been at last put into brilliant
epulcher. What deluson !
Yea, this delusion of Christian religion
hows itself in the fact that it goes to
hose who are in trouble. Now, it Is bad
nough to cheat man when he is well,
nd when he is prosperous; but this re-
giOn comes to man when he Is sick,
nd says: "You will be well again after
while; you are going into land where
here are no coughs and no pleurisies and
0 consumption and no languishing; take
Ourage and bear up" Yea, this awful
himera of the gospel comes to the poor
nd it says to them: "You are on your
'sy to vast estates and to dividends al
'ays declarsble." This delusion of Chris
auity comes to the beret., and it talks
reunion before the throne and of the
CESSATION of all sorrow. And then to show
lat this delusion will stop at absolutely
othing, it goes to the dying b. and fills
lie man with anticipations. How much
etter it would be to have him die with
ut any more hope than
SWINE, RATS AND SNAKES.
hat is all. Nothing more left of him.
e will never know anything again.
howell him under! The soul is only a
lperior part of the body, and when the
Ody disintegrates the soul disintegrates.
vacancy, everlasting blank,
Why not present all that
eautiful doctrine to the dying, instead of
oming with this hoax, this swindle of
lie Christian religion, and filling
lie dying man with anticipatiOns of
lother life, until some in the last hour
i've clapped their hands, and some have
louted, and some have sung, and some |
I've been so Overwrought with Joy they 7
,uld only look ecstatic. Palace gates :
oening, they thought; diamonded coro- :
its flashing, hands reckoning, orches-
as sounding. Little children dying &C
ally believing they saw their departed {
!rents, so that, although the little chill =
EN- had been SO weak and feeble and c
OK for weeks they could not turn on t